The Monday after the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 6, 2025 by under
Scripture: James 1:2-12 (NKJV)
1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9 Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, 10 but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. 11 For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.
12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
Devotion
The teachings of St. James reflect that which he heard from our Lord Jesus. If one truly belongs to the fellowship and brotherhood of God’s people, then he knows that our Lord teaches to cling to His blessings, take up one’s cross, and bear the fruit of love. This is written for those who already believe and are experiencing the trials that go with Christ’s cross. Such a one is a bondservant of God because he believes that Jesus is the Lord and Master. He is a brother because by the Spirit he has been made able to pray, “Our Father…”
St. James is stirring up the faithful to stand firm in the faith which God alone has worked in them. Our Lord Jesus taught that the unfaithful world will hate the children of God because it hates God and His truth. It requires our Lord’s divine help for us to both stand in the faith and to truly bear fruit in the faith. One is double-minded when he calls himself a servant of Christ and brother of the Church, but lacks the patience, love, and humility that shows he trusts in God’s power.
Our Lord Jesus taught that the wealth and power of the world is empty and short-lived. The unfaithful world clings to it, but it has no patience because it knows it won’t last. But in Christ we have peace, because we can humbly serve Him in the wisdom and knowledge that His Kingdom and righteousness will bless us now and forever according to His gracious promise.
Collect: Lord, we pray Thee, that Thy grace may always go before and follow after us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
